Page:Armistice Day.djvu/244

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
222
ARMISTICE DAY
 

Again from its old grief,
Looks up, athirst
And hungering,
Daring to dream again
Of flowers unhurt, and unstained rain
And love and spring:


Knowing that she shall build each place accurst
Into a thing that may some day again
Be our once land of comfort and delight,
Of ease and mockery...
Even forgetfulness:
Even the gift to bless.


Victory paces slowly through the lands:
No lash is in her hands,
She builds herself no triumph-arch for cover,
No common marble toy—
She is too great for joy.
She who upbuilds
Each little shattered home
And brings men back to it: and lover gives to lover,
And to the shattered soul its faith again,
And to the world continuance of God—
How should our praise for her
In high-crowned buildings stand—oh, how be pent
In built or written thing?
The stable world itself is her great monument!